Source: Some in U.S. Think Syria Has Atomic Centrifuges.

VIENNA (Reuters) - Some members of the Bush administration believe Syria has centrifuges that can purify uranium for use in bombs, though the intelligence community is divided on the issue, diplomats and experts told Reuters.

Last week, U.S. Undersecretary of State for Arms Control John Bolton said Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani scientist who sold nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea, had “several other” customers who may want the bomb. Western diplomats in Vienna said Bolton was clearly referring to Syria.

One atomic energy expert, who follows nuclear intelligence closely, said Bolton leads a faction in President Bush’s administration that believes they have strong evidence Syria is operating uranium-enrichment centrifuges.

But a U.S. official, who asked not to be named, warned the intelligence on Syria had not dispelled all doubts.

“Those who are pushing the idea that Syria has centrifuges have been held back by other members of the inter-agency community who question the veracity of the claim,” he said.

Several Western diplomats who follow the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), have been saying for months that Syria was a customer of Khan’s.

“Syria certainly had contact with Khan,” said a non-U.S. Western diplomat, adding that suspicions of Syrian research in atomic weapons have existed for decades.

Some things are so smack-in-the-eye obvious that only a diplomat (or a wire service) could deny them. Anyone who believes Syria (and Saudi Arabia and Iran and probably other Arab countries) is not pursuing nuclear weapons is lost in dreamland.